0:07Skip to 0 minutes and 7 secondsTo move from the workshop stage to the specification stage, I engaged the help and guidance of the HELM team, who were invaluable in their help towards me. The HELM team advised on the kind and type of writing structure I should use. For example, they suggested using a narrative approach to develop a storyline. The final output of the specification stage, although tricky to put together, showed a storyline that we could then turn into a film script. The challenges of the specification stage were trying to accommodate all of the detail and the contributions of the staff and students from two universities.

The specification writing stage - Fern's experience

We discovered in Week 3 that Fern’s storyboard workshop was a success, as the participants produced a number of potential learning objectives and creative ideas, but this provided the development team with a few challenges when thinking about writing their specification, which you should consider, for example.

How would Fern's development team choose the most appropriate workshop ideas for their E-learning resource?

What approach should be taken when writing the specification to ensure the content would be engaging for their intended audience?

Which creative ideas will help support the learning aim and are not too difficult or ambitious to develop?

Fern’s development team decided to write their specification around the ideas contained in the storyboard. This was selected because of its creative narrative which the development team thought would help engage their target audience, which will consist mainly of student nurses.

Fern mentions in the video that she sought the guidance of the HELM team to help find the correct design approach and identify whether the storyboard ideas would work for the project. It was suggested that Fern should take a narrative approach to writing the specification as a relevant and engaging storyline could be developed from the ideas recorded in the storyboard. The course team also advised that the chosen storyboard of a bus journey would be best developed using video and that the implementation of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ practice scenarios into the storyline would reinforce the project learning aim.

Now that you are about to start writing your own project specification it would be useful to start thinking about your project learning aim and objective and select which of the ideas from your storyboard that you would like to to use in the your E-learning resource.

Discussion points

Watch this video to share Fern’s experiences’ on specification writing and consider the following.

What approach did Fern take when writing the specification?

Why does Fern describe the writing of the specification stage as a challenge?